Dane Swan is a former slam poet, musician, and the author of multiple books of poetry and fiction, including Bending the Continuum (Guernica, 2011), He Doesn’t Hurt People Anymore (Dumagrad, 2017), and Tuesday (Grey Borders Books, 2018). His second poetry collection, A Mingus Lullaby (Guernica, 2016), was a finalist for the 2017 Trillium Book Prize for Poetry. Currently, Dane is editing an anthology of poetry and prose that celebrates diverse voices in Canada’s literary community for Guernica Editions.
Epitaph 11
Freedom
There’s no freedom for me
just humiliation. Walking through Watts half naked, pants stolen while skinny dipping. The only hope is a comfortable slavery. Fantasies of paying bills in a timely manner. Slip away to ghost town Saskatchewan, or the Maritimes. Find a little Miss a drive away. Disconnect from the grid. Stockpile bulk foods like a fanatic doomsday militia.
There’s no freedom for me
just labour. Sweat, and tears where fantasies once grew. Foreign wild weeds of conformity strangle my wilderness. We trek. Thumb in the sky, avoided like leprosy-infected children. Fisticuffs with failure, conformity. Hope blindfolded, swinging wildly. Be careful, she may accidentally knock you down, confusing your voice for misery.
There’s no freedom for
children with dreams beyond terabytes. Men with earth songs, and moon dreams. Women disinterested in soap opera melodies. People submerged in the muck of their lordships, and masters.
So stand fast, young Romeo
stand fast.
From A Mingus Lullaby, Copyright Dane Swan, 2016.
https://www.guernicaeditions.com/title/9781771830478